Books Blog : Indiana, small town, nonfictionhttp://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/tags/Indiana/small+town/nonfiction/default.aspxTags: Indiana, small town, nonfictionenCommunityServer 2008 SP1 (Build: 30619.63)The Ripest Moments by Norbert Krapfhttp://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2009/09/15/the-ripest-moments-by-norbert-krapf.aspxTue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:00 GMT9a7b961d-7882-4302-b701-732ca0e566f2:1855Bufkinite@evpl0http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=1855http://evpl.org/community/blogs/books/archive/2009/09/15/the-ripest-moments-by-norbert-krapf.aspx#comments<p><em><a href="http://encore.evpl.org/iii/encore/record/C%7CRb1915246%7CSripest+moments%7COrightresult?lang=eng&amp;suite=def" target="_blank"><img style="float:left;" height="217" alt="Book Jacket - The Ripest Moments" src="http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=III21&amp;Password=BT0005&amp;Return=1&amp;Type=L&amp;Value=9780871952622" width="160" />The Ripest Moments</a></em> is a simple pleasure to read.&nbsp; While reading this memoir of growing up in the 40s and 50s in Jasper and rural Dubois County, Indiana, I found myself reminded over and over again of my own childhood in northern Indiana, and the cousins, aunts, and uncles we&#39;d often visit in Ohio and West Virginia.</p>
<p>While this is primarily a book about place, and family, it&#39;s also a book about community, and the work ethic that built communities like Jasper - and like Evansville, for that matter - with materials and stock that, in the author&#39;s words, were &quot;one generation removed from the farm, two or three generations removed from Germany, and a hundred years beyond the wilderness.&quot;</p>
<p>As the title suggests, there&#39;s quite a bit remembered about the importance of gardens, orchards, and farms in this book. &nbsp;Family garden plots were central to the survival of pre-suburban, working families. &nbsp;&quot;Summers on the Farm,&quot; &quot;The Rye Field,&quot; and &quot;The Garden and the Strawberry Patch&quot; are just a few of the more mouth-watering chapters.</p>
<p>If you were born &amp; raised in southern Indiana, you&#39;ll find something familiar, and likely something warm, in this book. &nbsp;But even if you&#39;re a transplant, this book may speak to you. &nbsp;Quoting the author&#39;s preface: &quot;I have always believed that any story set deeply in one time and place, if told well, speaks for other times, places, and people. &nbsp;To put it another way, a sense of time and place travels well. &nbsp;A life lived deeply anywhere resonates beyond the context of its specifics.&quot;</p>
<p>This one resonated with me.</p>
<p>The author&#39;s <a target="_blank" href="http://www.krapfpoetry.com">website</a>.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://evpl.org/community/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1855" width="1" height="1">nonfictionreviewsbooksFoodAgriculturememoirfarmingsmall townIndianaFramiliesNorbert Krapf